The Vertical Farm

Following the 2008 "Re-imaging Cities: Urban Design After the Age of Oil symposium, Penn IUR solicited manuscripts on environmental and energy challenges and their effect on the redesign of urban environments.

Transcript of "The Vertical Farm"

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Working Paper The Vertical Farm: Growing Eco-­Cities Dickson Despommier Currently, over 800 million hectares are committed to some form of agriculture; this represents about 38% of the total landmass of the earth. Over the last 10,000 years of human history, farming has increasingly rearranged the landscape in favor of cultivated fields and herds of cattle at the expense of natural ecozones, reducing most of them to fragmented, semi-­‐functional units and completely eliminating others. This incursion has had significant costs in terms of both human and ecological health. On the human side, the transmission of a wide T variety of infectious agents—influenza, rabies, yellow fever, dengue fever, malaria, AF trypanosomiasis, hookworm, schistosomiasis—occurs with relentless and devastating regularity at the tropical and sub-­‐tropical agricultural interface and emerging infections, many of which are viral zoonoses (e.g., Ebola, Lassa fever), R rapidly adapt to the human host following human encroachment into natural environments. Exposure to toxic levels of some classes of agrochemicals (pesticides, D fungicides) and trauma are two other significant health risks associated with traditional agricultural practices. On the ecological side, farming consumes huge quantities of fossil fuels in the developed world. In the United States, alone, over 20% of all the fossil fuel consumed is used for agriculture. This of course translates into ever increasing levels of greenhouse gasses. Both of these human and ecological costs are likely to grow more severe as the human population is expected to rise to at least 8.6 billion over the next 40 years. This growth will require the support of an additional 109 hectares (roughly the size of Brazil), using current technologies. That

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Working Paper quantity of farmland is no longer available and so these increases will have to be supplied in part by more intensive, and potentially more environmentally degrading practices. And even if farming on this scale were not itself energy intensive or environmentally depleting, the cleared land necessary would still hamper one of our best and most economical ways to slow the rapidity of climate change: re-­‐forestation. [INSERT FIGURE 1] It is clear that we need a solution to the entire problem, not just to the food and agriculture part. But how can we supply 10 billion people with adequate food Tand water and still repair the environment? In my view, if just 50-­‐60% of traditional AFfarming could be replaced by constructing urban food production centers, then a long-­‐term benefit would be the gradual repair of many of the world’s damaged ecosystems through the systematic abandonment of farmland. This is already Rhappening in places where agriculture has failed, particularly in the northeastern region of the United States. In the Midwest, large tracts of land in Minnesota and DWisconsin are being abandoned. We need to see these vacated lands not simply as empty sites but as sites of active recovery. Ecological repair is what nature is best at, so a hands-­‐off policy actually works, and in most cases, within a very short time frame. An excellent example is the de-­‐militarized zone between North and South Korea. No one has stepped into it since 1953 and it is the most verdant portion of either country. The dust bowl of the 1930s has come back to a tall and mixed grass prairie. Even Chernobyl has recovered its biodiversity, again due to human abandonment of the area. The restoration of natural balance in even those

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Working Paper environments most traumatized by humans indicates the effectiveness of abandonment as an ecological strategy. But if we are to both abandon areas currently in use and conserve those lands not already under cultivation, our agricultural operations will need to be located in places already of relatively high density. Our farms, this is to say, will need to share land with our cities. [INSERT FIGURE 2] A vertical farm is one possible solution to sustainable urban agriculture. In addition to reducing the diseases transmitted at the agricultural interface and sparing uncultivated land the encroachment of agricultural operations, raising crops Tin high-­‐rise buildings has a number of advantages over traditional farming. Crops AFare protected from adverse weather conditions (floods, droughts, etc.), greatly regularizing the supply and quality of produce. Year-­‐round production is possible, thus reducing greatly the space required to raise large quantities of produce. Indoor Rfarming employing hydroponics and aeroponics consumes orders of magnitudes less water (70-­‐80% less) than conventional outdoor farming, conserving a vital Dresource for which there is no substitute and whose supply is likely to be an issue dominating political and ecological decisions in future decades. New job opportunities will result from the establishing of vertical farms as inner cities are able to diversify their economies in a hitherto inconceivable direction and abandoned and degraded city properties are reclaimed and given new value. [INSERT FIGURE 3a AND 3b] Vertical farming is still a virtual concept, but its success will be due to its imitation of nature. All biological material will be re-­‐cycled to greatly reduce greatly

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Working Paper or completely eliminate waste. Degradation of plant and animal waste into energy by some high-­‐tech incineration or gasification process could make the urban high-­‐rise farm completely independent of the energy grid. Urban farming in tall buildings also solves the global problem of agricultural runoff, currently the number one source of pollution worldwide. In addition, some city farms could be used just to produce bio-­‐fuels or to remediate gray water (de-­‐watered sludge). The vertical farm will bio-­‐remediate gray and black water sources, allowing for the re-­‐cycling of potable water back into the community. The safe use of human feces and urine as a starting source for energy generation further reduces the chances of transmission of Tpathogens that depend upon the fecal-­‐oral route. Vertical farming will require little AFin the way of cutting-­‐edge engineering technologies, with the possible exception of the need for new chemically-­‐defined plant foods for specific crops. Virtually any commercially viable crop can be grown indoors, including numerous animal species. R [INSERT FIGURE 4] Social acceptance of vertical farms will be one of its greatest challenges, but if Dcommunity ownership can be incorporated into the business plan, then the social and psychological barriers to its implementation can be overcome, allowing for a potentially radical reshaping of society. The old image of “down on the farm” will take on a whole new meaning, with urban farm buildings finally living up to the public’s expectations as to what really constitutes “green” architecture! The ultimate goal is of course to live as one natural species among all the rest without insuring the wrath of nature due to encroachment into ecosystems that we do not control.

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Working Paper The city ecosystem we create will have the ability to live within its means and thus allow all the other ecosystems to do the same. T AF R D

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Working Paper Figure 3a. Rendering of the southern façade of the Center for Urban Agriculture by TMithun AF R D Figure 3b. Rendering of the northern façade of the Center for Urban Agriculture by Mithun